


One more try

by orphan_account



Category: Dream Team - Fandom, GeorgeNotFound - Fandom, Karl Jacobs - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Sapnap - Fandom, Twitch - Fandom, Twitch Streamers, dream - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Death, Drinking, M/M, Past Lives, Past life, Platonic Soulmates, Reincarnation, Romantic Soulmates, Sad with a Happy Ending, Soulmates, abusive karl sorry karl :(, karlnap, muy sad, no the real people arent like this, small amount of dreamnotfound, this is just vent, very sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27895642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The next morning, Karl wakes up to loud yells from his friends Clay and George. He looks around at the sea of shattered glass, an open door and two dishevelled men. “KARL! WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU?!” George bursts into tears and starts lightly hitting Karl’s arms. His head rings as he recalls everything from last night. Karl gets up and holds his head, looking around for Nick.Clay notices he’s searching for something and stops bawling. “Where’s Nick? Why’s our door unlocked?”, Karl questions. Clay bites the inside of his cheek and inhales sharply, before harshly punching Karl’s face over and over. “WHAT THE HELL, CLAY?! WHERE’S NICK?!”George pulls Clay back to let Karl breathe a little. “Did you even follow him out? Did you see him out there? Do you even know what happened?”, George’s voice cracks. Karl gets up and sits down, shaking his head.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap, Clay | Dream & Karl Jacobs, Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound & Karl Jacobs, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Nick | Sapnap/Karl Jacobs
Comments: 3
Kudos: 90





	One more try

**Author's Note:**

> yeaaaaaa ill update the dreamnotfound one soon

A glass barely misses Nick’s face. “WHY DOES HE KEEP DOING THIS TO ME, NICK?!”, Karl screams in distress and crouches on the floor. Karl’s drinking again and Nick has had enough of his drinking. This time, he’ll call someone to help Karl out with his problems if Nick can’t. He tries to walk out of the living room to the porch, but Karl throws a bottle at his feet. “DON’T LEAVE ME, ASSHOLE!” 

Trying to stand, Karl picks up another glass full of liquor and gulps it all in one go. “Karl... please, I’ll get you help. We’ll get help together, right? You and me!”, Nick begs him to stop and just calm down. For a second, it looked like Karl was considering it. While Karl was busy thinking, Nick grabs a nearby vase and puts it behind his back. 

Sadly, Karl sits back down. “W-What if I can’t stop? If I change...will things really get better?”, he asks in a slur. Walking up to him, Nick gives Karl a hug and holds up his face to wipe his tears. Karl rests his head in his hand, while holding Nick’s arm and side. They stand still, enjoying the moment of peace. But it doesn’t last. 

Swiftly, Nick pushes away the chair Karl sits on and slams the vase onto the wall next to them. 

Karl distracted by the ceramic shattering, Nick seizes the chance to leave and runs to the streets towards his friend George’s house. “I’m sorry...I’ll be back.”, he whispers to himself. Looking around, he sprints to his friend’s street which is only a few steps away. The memories of Karl’s abuse cause Nick’s heart to be heavy. 

Nick knows that his friend would most likely be awake by now. Desperately, he followed the way to George, not paying attention to the objects around him; being alone is the worst thing for him right now. Sobs come out of him, he’s so tired already. All he wants is for Karl to be happy. 

His tears block his vision so much he can’t see the bright light that’s running towards him in the pitch-black night. Nick hears the long honk going towards his direction and looks over. His eyes were hit by the white. It makes him forget where he is. 

Nick freezes in fear. “KARL!” 

Those final words. The car, going too fast, becomes the last thing Nick feels before his head hits the ground. 

Despite being in excruciating pain, the only thing he thinks about is where Karl is and how he’s going to be when he finds out. 

As his blood oozes out of his head, the warmth comforts Nick in a sense; makes him think about how he’s a real person. For once, the night isn’t so cold anymore. 

The person driving screams and tries to stop the bleeding. They bring Nick into the car and drives at high speed towards the hospital in hopes that he lives, but Nick passes out, perhaps because of exhaustion or the injury. Perhaps it’s both. 

They arrive at the hospital and meet the security, after the driver cries for their help. People crowd the driver covered in blood, and Nick being held in their arms. It’s enough to force the guards to bring him to the ER. 

Nick is placed on a stretcher for his vitals to be checked and how much he's been physically hurt and which parts to tend to first. A few tests later, they figure out it’s brain haemorrhage. One of the scariest things on Earth. It can happen to you even if you’re the healthiest person on Earth. 

The doctors sit him on the operating table to drain out the blood and fix the nerves but due to a shortage of blood bags and such a wide area of the brain bleeding... 

The next morning, Karl wakes up to loud yells from his friends Clay and George. He looks around at the sea of shattered glass, an open door and two dishevelled men. “KARL! WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU?!” George bursts into tears and starts lightly hitting Karl’s arms. His head rings as he recalls everything from last night. Karl gets up and holds his head, looking around for Nick. 

Clay notices he’s searching for something and stops bawling. “Where’s Nick? Why’s our door unlocked?”, Karl questions. Clay bites the inside of his cheek and inhales sharply, before harshly punching Karl’s face over and over. “WHAT THE HELL, CLAY?! WHERE’S NICK?!” 

George pulls Clay back to let Karl breathe a little. “Did you even follow him out? Did you see him out there? Do you even know what happened?”, George’s voice cracks. Karl gets up and sits down, shaking his head. 

“HE’S FUCKING DEAD BY A CAR, KARL!” Enraged, Clay punches a hole in Karl’s wall. Despite the pain of his bruised fist, he attacks Karl once more. His partner stops him from continuing further by giving him a look of weariness. Although the pain of the new cuts in Karl’s cheek sting, the realisation stung harder. 

“Clay, please... let him down easy!”, George looks over to Karl. 

Karl freezes, unknowing what to do. Nick, his best friend, who promised to be his partner for life, didn’t fulfil his vow. “W-What...? NO! That’s a fucked-up thing, you’re trying to pull here, guys.” Clay seethes with anger and rips his arms away from George. 

He starts choking Karl, but Karl isn’t thinking about whether it hurts or not; he’s trying to grasp the reality of Nick’s death. George screams, “STOP! STOP IT, CLAY! PLEASE! NICK WOULDN’T WANT THIS!” Letting Karl go, George’s last sentence managed to reach out to Clay’s rage. The couple start having tears roll down their faces. “We’re leaving, Karl. Take care.”, grabbing Clay by the arm, they head out of the door. 

Not responding, Karl looks around the room nervously. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Nick could leave him. No. He’s hasn’t left at all. Yeah, Karl’s just drunk...right? It’s going to be the same as every day. Karl gets depressed and loses control, Nick leaves or cleans up the mess, then they both sleep and wake up then Karl apologises. Again, and again. A constant loop of pain that they call their relationship. 

Their relationship. 

What was it, really? It was- no, **it is** a serious conversation between Karl and Nick, a forever bond, a daily routine that never gets tiring. Karl starts to think about it. Lately, life hasn’t looked too good for them. Tax raise, low income, getting fired from a job, being robbed. But those troubles meant nothing whenever he’d come home to Nick. Cheering him up, knowing what to say, Nick did it all. He was the best. Was. 

Nick was the best. Nick tried the hardest. And for what? ‘ _To stay by a pathetic_ _man?_ _Gotta be fucking kidding me_ ’ Karl thinks. Despite his head throbbing, he runs around the house without fixing himself up. After running around the house, he heaves as he’s found nothing. 

Panicked, he goes outside to check the neighbourhood. Karl sees nothing but a very clean part of the road near George’s house. He figures it all out; this is where Nick ran out last night. The freshly washed part must’ve been his... no. No. NO! It’s not possible. Nick cannot die. He never will. Deep in thought, Karl doesn’t realise he’s walked over to a bridge with cars rushing beneath it. 

What did it mean to be alone? Did Nick feel like this? The fall looks high enough and if doesn’t do the trick, the vehicles definitely will. Karl closes his eyes and leaps forward. 




1... 

His eyes peek open. There was no feeling? What was he looking at...? 

Looking around, Karl sees familiar bookshelves and blue curtains flowing over the sun lit windows. The university library? What was he doing here? Were his years with Nick just a dream? That’s not possible. A while after looking around, Karl notices there’s no one until he sees Nick wearing a striped shirt, reading the book 'To kill a mockingbird'. 

A striped shirt? The university library? Karl checks his outfit to see his old favourite grey sweater from high school. The first time he and Nick met! Was he just dreaming the whole time? “N-Nick?” Karl chokes out. Running with arms wide open, Karl goes up to him. But Nick flinches; right, if Karl really did dream everything to life, it’d be weird for a stranger to run and hug him. 

“I’ve been waiting for you, Karl. Why’d you come after me so early?” Nick tears up yet smiles at him. “I’m sorry for not being there for you.” Right after Nick speaks, a wave of memories and emotions come over Karl. However, they aren’t Karl’s. 

Sadness, fear, pity. Love, happiness, longing. 

They echo in his ears, the drunken voice of Karl; the music playing in the background as they dance; the shattering glass; **the** **exchanged** **words full of** **affection; the exchanged words full of sorrow**. These are not Karl’s; these belong to Nick. Remembrance of their first meeting, first date, first month-iversary, first anniversary, first Christmas, first Valentines, first Halloween, moving in together... the first time he hit Nick, the first time he knocked Nick out. 

It’s so cold yet so warm. Like a summer’s rain, the memories come in quick then settle in Karl’s mind, as if they’re his own. Now, he has two sides of the story. Karl notices that all the memories are just of Nick with Karl, never without him. 

The sensations overwhelm him. Nick was so happy yet so in pain. Karl smiles yet sobs, clenching his chest whilst crouching. “Y’know, when I died, my mum was waiting for me. I didn’t know there was anything after death to be honest. You can only choose to wait for one person in the overworld, so I was wondering why she chose me.” Nick kneels down to pat Karl’s back. 

Holding his own face, Karl questions, “W-what’s happening? Where are we?”. Nick chuckles and pulls him up by the arm. Putting his hands in his pockets, Nick walks around. The library’s emergency exit looks like it has large light sources behind it, but it’s not opened yet. The clock isn't ticking and there are no birds outside. 

Tenderly, Nick replies, “Well, we’re in the overworld. I figured that out when I saw my mum at the hospital, where I was born. Seems like I got her memories and I have your memories; both are all with me in it and I assume you have mine too, right?” Karl’s brain flicks back to the painful ones with Nick checking the mirror. He took such good care of Karl. 

Straight after being abused, he’d change Karl’s clothes, wipe his face down with a damp towel, tuck him in and kiss him a good night. There was so much pain in those memories. Yet, it isn’t Nick’s. It’s the heavy weight of Karl’s own regret. “Y-yes! Nick, I am so sorry! I-I want to do everything all over again, please! Someone, hear me!” Karl cries out to the sky, but no one can do anything. 

Checking the shelves, Nick goes through a certain section of it; the fiction section. He pulls out a book, with a photo of a boy in front of a red train. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone? “Remember this book? You pretended to read the book, but it was upside down! You were not subtle at all. It was entertaining, don’t worry”, Nick recalls. 

Speaking about sweet memories causes Karl to look through more of Nick’s mind. He finds the ones of waking up to Karl cooking breakfast to apologise about ‘last night’... then doing the same after 2 days. He finds another with them simply looking at their failure of a cake, then laughing, a very distant memoir. “I-I’m sorry for all of this, Nick, you didn’t deserve any of this!” 

Nick sheds a few tears and speaks up, “Maybe I did deserve this, maybe I didn’t. It didn’t really matter; I know I would’ve done it again anyways. It’s time for us to go, Karl. Not because there’s some time limit or something, but because I want to make you happy this time.” 

Lips quivering, Karl holds his hand. “Y-You did make me happy! You m-made me so happy, why did you choose me? Why didn’t you choose George or Clay?” Nick clasps their hands together and holds them in front of their faces. 

“Because I love you. Isn’t that enough?”, Nick tilts his head and warmly beams. Karl didn’t deserve this, but Nick still stayed. “George and Clay know that I love them already, but I wasn’t sure that you did. I hoped that you didn’t resent me for failing at helping you”. Karl bites his lips to try and stop his sobs, but they kept coming out. “If you don’t want to come with me, that’s fine. I’ll be going now, okay?” 

Letting go of Karl, Nick goes towards the emergency exit that’s brightly lit on the other side. Karl assumes that it’s heaven or wherever they’re going to end up in. “W-wait, will we see each other again?”. Nick turns back one last time. 

Sadness laces his words, “Let’s try and find each other, no matter how weird the situation is. I want to move forward, Karl. We should be free from a prison that never actually pulled us down, which was the worst part about it. We carried such load that we could’ve easily lifted, but we didn’t.” Nick wishes that when they get reincarnated, he could have more self-respect. 

Holding his hand out for Karl to take, Nick smirks happily through tears. “Let’s get out of here. Hopefully we can become best friends that never hurt each other or dumb kids that meet up over the dumbest chances. I love you, Karl; I really do. Please restart with me” 

Karl takes his hand and goes into the light. They finally got rid of the pressure in their soul to be together. The next time they choose to have any sort of relationship, it’ll be by choice. 

“BAD! BAD! BAD! BAD! BAD!” Karl and Nick chant at their fellow SMP member named BadBoyHalo. Now, Nick is known as Sapnap whereas Karl is still Karl. After numerous attempts at annoying their friend, he angrily lets out a ‘WHAT?!’, which Karl meows in reply. 

Following their Minecraft stream, Sapnap asks Karl to join his VC in Discord to play another round of Phasmophobia with GeorgeNotFound and Punz. 

They now are best friends. Maybe they’ll fall in love, maybe they won’t. But now, they're simply two idiots who are happy together. Seems like the gods became careful with these two soulmates. The soulmates don’t spend so much time with one another yet when they do, it’s the happiest they’ll be together, every time they speak with each other. 

_I’ve been waiting for you, Karl. Why’d you come after me so early?_ Alarmed, Nick shoots open and searches for his phone to tell George. He had such a strange dream... it was about someone. Someone important; important enough to make Nick cry? After he’s found it, he calls George several time. 

“What the fuck, Nick? You keep calling me for wha-”, despite being annoyed, he stops once he hears Nick sniffle. “W-What the hell? Are you okay? Why’re you crying?” Nick cries a little harder at George's voice. It's been such a long time since he’s spoken to George, hasn’t it? 

Nick laughs. “I missed you, George.” 

“What are you talking about? Your dumb prank isn’t funny.” George says, unimpressed. 

Giggling, Nick screams, “GEORGE! Thank you, you were there for me when I needed it. Can’t believe I found you again!” He doesn’t care if George is confused, he’s going to explain everything to try and get George to remember as well. 

It’s been 10 minutes since Nick explained his whole dream to George and Dream, who was added to the call as requested by Nick. The dream was about Nick’s past life. He remembers everything, even when he was in the overworld. Yet, he doesn’t know the name or face of the one he waited for in heaven. 

Clay asks, concerned, “...I’m sorry Nick, but we have no idea what you’re talking about. Did you just tap into your past life?” Nick sighs, it was his final chance to get them to know who he was, but maybe it’s for a reason. 

Somewhat irritated, Nick complains, “I was talking about-” 

...what was he going to say? “Talking about what?” George awaits him to defend himself, but there was no response. 

“Talking about what?” Nick repeats George. When did he wake up? Why was he in a call with George and Clay? “Woah, when did you guys call me?” Even more confused, George and Clay groan. 

“What the hell, Nick! Why’re you pretending not to know?”, growing impatient and mad, Clay questions his strangeness. “My god, was this a prank?” What prank? Nick doesn’t even remember opening his phone, how was it a prank? 

After back-and-forth banter, they concluded that Nick truly forgot about everything. “How the fuck can someone just forget everything? We literally spent a whole ass hour talking about you from the old days this guy you were in love with and abused by, which may I say if happened in real life, leave his ass!” Even if they kept reminding him, Nick just can’t remember anything. 

In love with. Love. Nick remembers that. Who was he in love with? Why was he suddenly so warm and soft on the inside? “Look guys, I’m gonna go; my head hurts. Bye!” Nick ends the call without waiting for them to let him go. 

Suddenly, everything’s happy and bright. There’s so much good in life, Nick realises. Why not explore it? What made him so happy this morning? Was it George? Was it Clay? Maybe he’ll never know, but why not find out, right? His thoughts are interrupted by a phone call. 

It’s them, isn’t it? He’s in love with that person. Nick decides that it must be because of them, there’s no other explanation why he’s woken up so happy. Actually, there’s no other explanation why he’s been so happy ever since they came into his life. They’ve made everything so much better recently. The phone buzzes violently, “Who is this?” Nick says, acting all cool, knowing damn well who it is. 

He hears laughter on the other end of the call. “Ok, cool guy. You seem to be in a good mood!” Yeah. Maybe Nick won’t remember who he was in love with, but he’ll remember to keep that love inside for this person. He wants to make them happy. “It’s me, …" 


End file.
